A Lake Ariel man wanted for the armed robbery of an NBT Bank office in Wayne County on Monday is likely in the Scranton area and may still be driving the stolen SUV he fled in after the holdup, state police at Honesdale said Friday.
(read more)

State Attorney General Josh Shapiro vowed Thursday the arrest of seven current and former Lackawanna County Prison guards charged with having sex with female inmates is the “opening chapter” of an effort to unravel the abusive culture that fostered that behavior.
(read more)

Full-time Dunmore police officers will each get 150 hours of compensatory time, and officers who have already accumulated significant comp time will split $74,018 in an arbitration award on shift assignments.

The award from arbitrator Walt De Treux was designed to compensate 17 full-time police officers who were denied the opportunity to work overtime before shifts were assigned to part-timers.

The hours included a 7 p.m.-to-3 a.m. shift that former Police Chief Patrick Reese created in January 2012 to address coverage concerns, according to the award The Sunday Times obtained through a Right to Know Law request.

"We weren't trying to cut them out of hours," council President Salvatore Verrastro said. "We were just trying to add men to the street during problem times."

Thomas Jennings, the union's attorney, said on Thursday the case was not difficult to win because the borough violated both the contract and many years of past practice.

The Dunmore Borough Police Officers Association won its grievance on Dec. 5, 2012, but the amount of money the borough owed the officers remained under dispute until the recent decision.

The union had determined the officers were entitled to a combined total of 6,000 compensatory hours during the time frame the violations occurred, which would have equated to about $202,000.

The borough had maintained the officers were entitled to about $100,000, but the award was for less than that total.

"The number of shifts due to full-time officers in remedy of this grievance is 212.5 shifts, i.e., 2,550 hours," Mr. De Treux wrote. "The total number of shifts shall be divided equally (150 hours per officer among) the 17 full-time officers who were eligible to work the overtime opportunities."

For officers who have previously accumulated significant amounts of compensatory time, the award and federal law caps comp time at 480 hours, which equates to 12 40-hour work weeks.

Any hours the officers accumulated in excess of that will be paid out in wages.

Mr. Jennings said he was satisfied with the decision.

Police union leaders have told Mr. Jennings around half of the 17 officers went over the 480 compensatory hour threshold from the award, having previously built up other comp time.

Michael McHale, vice president of borough council, said distributing that much compensatory time could cause some scheduling problems and raise overtime costs.

"The bigger deal is the veteran officers won't be on the streets where they need to be," Mr. McHale said.

The broader scheduling issue remains under discussion between union and borough leaders.

In a separate award that extended the collective bargaining agreement between the borough and union through 2017, arbitrators ordered both sides to negotiate the issue starting no later than April 1.

"The borough has maintained that it 'desperately needs flexibility in scheduling, particularly as it applies to the utilization of part-time officers,'â" reads the decision. "To that end, it has proposed eliminating current contract language and long-standing past practice that requires shift vacancies to be offered first to full-time officers by 'seniority on rotation.'â"

Arbitrators wrote they recognized both the borough's financial concerns and the union's desire to protect its seniority rights.

"The panel also recognizes that the parties have indicated (although maybe not to each other) that they are not opposed to a full discussion on the main issues surrounding the scheduling process with the goal of reaching a mutually-acceptable resolution that addresses both parties' concerns," the award reads.

Mr. McHale was optimistic borough and union leaders will find a middle ground that "puts more guys on the road and minimizes costs."

Aside from the specific shift issues in the grievance, Mr. McHale said the union has worked with council to allow part-time officers to take shift vacancies to help with borough finances.

Contact the writer: kwind@timesshamrock.com, @kwindTT on Twitter

We welcome user discussion on our site, under the following guidelines:

To comment you must first create a profile and sign-in with a verified DISQUS account or social network ID. Sign up here.

Comments in violation of the rules will be denied, and repeat violators will be banned. Please help police the community by flagging offensive comments for our moderators to review. By posting a comment, you agree to our full terms and conditions. Click here to read terms and conditions.